That Moment With Him

An elderly woman, with a mind of her own, returned home from the hospital after having undergone major surgery. Among other things, her doctor instructed her to take things easy for awhile and, above all, not to go up and down stairs until he saw her again. One week later, the doctor examined her, evaluated her healing progress and told her, among other things, that she could safely go up and down stairs again. To which the patient replied, “Thank God! I was getting tired of climbing up and down that drainpipe!”

That woman’s response to her doctor’s instructions is not unlike our response to Jesus’ instructions at times. We come to Church, and we hear His commands, but we have a mind of our own and we look for a way around them — a loophole.

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus’ clear instruction to us, His followers, is to love one another. “I give you a new commandment,” He says, “you must love one…